Madam C J Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, (1867 - 1919) was an African-American entrepreneur and philanthropist from Delta, Louisiana. During the 1890s, Walker suffered from a then-common scalp infection that caused most of her hair to fall out. As a result, she began experimenting with various medicines and hair products, none of which seemed to work.
Then she had a dream:
He answered my prayer, for one night I had a dream, and in that dream a big, black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up in my hair. Some of the remedy was grown in Africa, but I sent for it, mixed it, put it on my scalp, and in a few weeks my hair was coming in faster than it had ever fallen out. I tried it on my friends; it helped them. I made up my mind to begin to sell it.
Madam Walker did indeed begin selling the products she developed as a result of the dream (which consisted of a shampoo and ointment containing sulphur), establishing Madam C J Walker Manufacturing Company. Her hair loss product met with so much success it made her a millionaire many times over. She is cited by The Guinness Book of Records as being the first American female self-made millionaire.
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